A Microsoft executive said that each sale of the upcoming Xbox One console will break-even or be sold at profit from its launch date.

According to Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi, the company plans to make money on selling games for the console and the Xbox Live subscription (which, he noted, has grown to 48 million members now).

"The strategy will continue which is that we're looking to be break even or low margin at worst on [Xbox One]," said Mehdi. "And then make money selling additional games, the Xbox Live service and other capabilities on top. And as we can cost-reduce our box as we've done with 360, we'll do that to continue to price reduce and get even more competitive with our offering."

Mehdi, who spoke at the Citi Global Technology Conference this week, also said that Microsoft plans to support the Xbox 360 for another three years. The company plans to release over another 100 games for the console.

"You've seen us over the years constantly be focused on profitability and improving year over year," said Mehdi. "There are different points in the cycle when you invest in new hardware. If you look at 360, that platform lasted for seven to eight years and it's going to go for another three years. It's incredibly profitable now in the tail.

"Some of these things take some time in the launch year in which you invest, and then they they play out over time. We're going to continue to invest in Xbox 360, and the two devices can work in concert. So it's not like the day we ship Xbox One your 360 won't work. We'll continue to support it."

Microsoft recently announced that the Xbox One will officially launch November 22 in 13 markets, including Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, UK, and USA. It will make its way to other markets in 2014.

You're applying stupid circular logic to confuse the obvious. Unless Microsoft is staffed with the dumbest people on Earth, they ALREADY KNEW the shi$storm their announcements would cause before hand. They just didn't care! Until Sony made them care.

What? Every company on the planet is going to hire dumb people. You cannot possibly know what they will do. Nobody walks into an interview telling the employer they plan on doing something like this.

You are just using pure speculation to backup unfounded argument. There's no truth in what you're saying unless you have evidence. Do you have a leaked memo? Something that actually spells out their intentions every step of the way? No, you don't. One person's comments do not represent a companies beliefs.

Wow, for the last time, I don't give a sh*t about getting an xbox one, I don't want one. I'm not some biased fanboy who thinks their console is better and trying to justify it with logicless arguments. I'm a bystander who can see it for what it is, unlike you apparently.

Make a mistake - get criticized. Fix your mistake, get criticized. You people are something else... really.

Yeah a bystander. Go make another 50 posts about the Xbox or how poor Microsoft is being treated unfairly.

Without Sony, Microsoft would have - intentionally - caused irreparable harm to the gaming community. And you keep trying to hand them a medal because they were forced into retreat. Spin that however you want.

Lol, if you want my truly honest opinion, I'm "defending" Microsoft's decisions because they reacted accordingly to customer feedback. The reality is I think they never should have. Their original idea had far more potential, and I think people who complained were incredibly short sighted, or didn't have a stable internet connection. And yes, it sucks to not be able to use it for that reason, but there are a lot of products that can't. Nobody is forcing someone in the middle of nowhere to buy a cell phone, and nobody is forcing someone with no internet to buy an XBO. The device is a luxury, not a right.

So if you want to keep talking about how I'm defending Microsoft, then you can at least be aware that I DON'T like the decision they actually made. I'm defending them because they listened to customers and gave everyone what they wanted, and that is a +1 in my book even though it's not exactly what *I* wanted.

This was never about whether or not I thought Microsoft made the better decision or not. As I've told you a hundred times, it's because I think Microsoft deserves credit for listening to customers, and that should be noted.

I obviously don't feel like Microsoft's original plans were 100% optimal, but they were a step in the right direction. I'm not going to have the argument about that anymore, though, as it's no longer relevant.